Neil Robertson (1)

It's really difficult to take great pictures of gardens; pictures that both look great and capture the true essence of the garden. It's a function not only of the skill of the photographer but also the timing....getting the light just right....avoiding the heat of the day....and, in Australia, avoiding the massive contrast between shade and open sun. Have the photographers here managed to pull-off the great photographs that the subjects warrant? Unfortunately no. I found this book terribly disappointing. (The pictures compare very badly with those in a roughly similar book about Australian Gardens...."Gardens on the edge" where the photographs were taken by Simon Griffiths). Fortunately I didn't pay a lot for it at the Lifeline sale but In should have looked a bit harder before I bought it. It's a record of gardens of Australia that are part of the Open Gardens program, where people open their garden to the general public for a fee and the proceeds go to charity (I think). Yes a noble cause and I've actually visited some of these gardens and been really impressed with them. Unfortunately, I think the authors here have probably been instructed to have in-depth conversations with the owners (most of them women, interestingly) and there is a lot of history and text ......interesting as far as it goes but hard to substitute for photos which truly show the gardens. (One picture being worth a thousand words etc.)
So overall, quite underwhelmed. Pity. I give the book one star.… (mehr)